NOTD: Red, White & Blue

Since the 4th of July is only 2 days away...I just had to do a red, white & blue mani. Which I think turned out really great. It was kind of hard trying to figure out exactly how I wanted do this design. At first I was thinking stars & stripes...but I remembered I had a design that was actually a spray of fireworks, so I had to use that image. But as I was looking through my designs, I was actually surprised I didn't have more images that would fit this theme. I have plenty of star images to choose from but all the "lined" images were curved or at an angle and I had a particular look in mind. I recently purchased the 2013 themed jumbo plates from Cheeky and on the holiday IP, it only had 1 image that would fit and I didn't really like it, so I came up with my own rendition. I ended up using some stars (not traditional stars) and the fireworks spray.

This mani is different than normal, in that my left hand is red & blue and my right hand is blue & white. I normally would have each color on both hands, but I just wanted to switch it up bit...kind of like having 2 mani's in one. But to bring it all together, I used all 3 colors for my stamping.

Here's what I used:

Base coat: Julep Nail Therapy

Base color 1: Most Sinful by Sinful Shine

Accent color 1: Wisp by Sinful Shine

Accent color 2: Layla Ceramic Effects (CE 53)

Top coat 1: Seche Vite Top Coat - I apply this before stamping, if I mess up I can remove the design without removing the base color

Both of the Sinful Shine polishes, Most Sinful & Wisp, are fabulous polishes...in every way! The formula for Most Sinful (the blue) is just like that of Wisp. Applies flawlessly, completely opaque in 1 coat and very true to color. I'm thinking this is one of my all time favorite blue nail polishes. Both brushes are great, they are extremely shiny without topcoat!!! And they both stamp great. So, if you were skeptical to try them...don't be. They are fantastic and only cost $2.99!!!

The Layla Ceramic Effects polish is a very pretty red, with color changing flakies in it. The color changing effect is sadly not really visible on the nail. But it does apply really great and surprisingly, you could get away with only 1 coat. But, the flakies are more visible with 2 coats. The brush is a really nice size, and I think helps the flakies apply better. It is very easy to apply and distribute on the nail, just to make it more even and opaque. I do like this polish, but not sure I would pay the regular $15 price tag...maybe if the color changing effect of the flakies were visible...in the bottle it looks awesome. I would suggest waiting until you can find it on clearance.